Category: News

Southern Vintage Table ie now a proud member of the Green Wedding Guild! This group of wedding vendors has pledged to become better stewards of our planet while providing excellent services and products. Here’s the Green Wedding Guild pledge:

“We believe that we can all do more to reduce the waste generated by weddings, and that sustainable choices are within reach of all vendors and couples. We strive to make these choices accessible to our clients, and to become better environmental stewards through education and community. We may just be beginning our journey, we may not have achieved zero-waste, or we may already be green leaders in our field, but we are committed to learning, and to sharing what we learn with other vendors and clients along the way. By educating ourselves and our clients, we pledge to move toward creating a more environmentally sustainable wedding industry. We do this not only for ourselves, but for our clients and our planet. We pledge to be respectful, professional, and non-judgmental toward other vendors and clients. We will lead by example and support others on their own quest toward more sustainable weddings. We are not here to judge, but to inspire!”

Our company offers rescued vintage tableware and linens as well as vintage decor. These offerings are sustainable, recovered, and a reminder of our shared past. We are excited and pleased to formally become a member of the Green Wedding Guild. Check out our listing on the website as well as the other guild member vendors.

We are ready to offer our customized upcycled treasures to you! Beautiful decoupaged bottles, jars, pots, and rocks (we love-love-love our pretty rocks!) will be available next weekend at Fernrock Farm‘s stand on Orange Grove Road in Hillsborough, NC.

All in one shopping – pick up both a beautiful bottle/vase and a gorgeous bouquet or a transformed pot and plant and you are ready to enjoy a one-of-a-kind arrangement. For details about Fernrock Farm’s offerings, check their Facebook page for the latest info. In advance, thank you for supporting Southern Vintage Table and Fernrock Farm!

Supplies will be limited since each item is carefully and individually crafted. Please keep in mind that although decoupaged items are durable, the exterior is not waterproof. Do not submerge in water; if the outside should get wet, simply wipe it dry. Pots can be outdoors if protected from rain and freezing weather.

Happy Mother’s Day! My mother, Christine, was the most extraordinary person I have ever known. She endured incredible hardships and celebrated many triumphs, and her children greatly benefited from her love and wisdom. As a tribute to her, I’d like to share three of the many lessons I learned from her and give an example of how they have been helped me as a small business owner.

1. Only the boring get bored.

Ouch! Yep, this is classic Christine. We lived in the country on a dirt road, had one kinda-working car that mom drove to work, and 3 channels on tv. But, since there were 8 of us, we usually found something to do (or not to do, like housework!) We read, watched tv, listened to records, played outside, and, my favorite, searched for those good luck four-leaf clovers in the front lawn under the dogwood tree. If we got bored, it was our fault, or as mom would say, it was because we were boring, then she’d find something for us to do, like wash the dishes or help fix supper. So we learned not to be bored, or at least not tell mom. As an adult, yes, I sometimes get bored, but I mostly know how to keep busy, which has come in handy these past months during our quarantine.

Never be bored, and you will never be boring. –Eleanor Roosevelt

2. Go for it!

Recently my daughter said I was fearless because I had cut down some small trees using a chain saw. Even though it was not big deal since it was a small battery-operated saw, I loved hearing those words! After giving some thought to her comment, I realized that this can-do attitude was a gift from my mom. For those who knew her, her courageous spirit was contagious..

Southern Vintage Table began with this mantra. When my sister suggested that I start a vintage china rental business, I just knew this was a perfect fit for me. I had recently retired from teaching middle school and was ready for a new challenge. Did I have experience running a business or did I know anything about china? Nope and nope, but I didn’t want to regret not trying. Now, seven years later, I know my mom would be proud of me for “going for it.”

“Above all, be the heroine of your life, not the victim.” = Nora Ephron

3. There is always a silver lining.

As I think of the countless conversations I had with mom about situations, predicaments, or hardships, she would always see that silver lining. She would magically dissect a negative and transform it into a lesson, opportunity, or gift to be revered.

While my business has come to a halt this spring, I have not faltered in my belief that things will work out, whatever that might mean. I’ve taken this time to work on projects at home, spend time crafting, and catching up on movies that I always meant to watch. I’ve gotten closer to my children, family, and friends via texts, phone calls and FaceTime, and have relaxed on the back deck with my morning coffee. I’m eager to get SVT up and running again, but I have also savored this quiet time at home.

There are always flowers for those who want to see them. —Henri Matisse

Three of the many lessons taught by my spunky, sassy, smart, and strong mother, Christine. Happy Mother’s Day.

Hello from Hillsborough! As many of you, we are still on pause, waiting for the stay-at-home period to transition. A positive outcome for us has been having time to rekindle our crafting spirit, something we have missed during our busy days at Southern Vintage Table.

During the daytime hours we’ve worked outside to create several pretty garden spots and cleaned up the woods near our home. In the evening, we decoupage. First it was plastic eggs, then plastic pumpkins and kombucha jars. Now we are covering garden pots, assorted sizes of jars, and even river rocks!

We love how florals look in decoupaged jars and bottles as well as the how playful decoupaged rocks look as table decor. All of these lovelies will be available in our inventory and more will be added as our time at home continues. In the meantime, stay well and we look forward to helping with many events in the near future!

On a side note, the wooden kitty was a birthday gift from my then beau, now husband, on my 18th birthday. Truly vintage! 🙂

Reason 1 – Spring is here! So happy to see new growth on the trees, bright flowers, and longer days. Yay!

Reason 2 – We had a surprise delivery from Fernrock Farm! What a wonderful treat to find this assortment of blooms on our porch Monday morning. This floral package is a sample “make your own bouquet kit” that will be offered soon. Be sure to follow Fernrock Farm for the lastest in classes and offerings.

Reason 3 – We are planning to be busy soon because most of our spring and early summer clients have been able to reschedule their weddings. Thank goodness! Although we’ve had cancellations – all with good reason and sincere regret – we will be okay and even more ready to help you create a memorable, eco-friendly, vintage event!

We know you have reasons to be grateful, too. Take care and stay well.

If there was ever time to find your zen it is now. Some folks find theirs by meditating, reading, being mindful, listening to music, or taking walks. For us, finding one’s zen means to feel relaxed, be free from worry, engaged in mindfulness, and immersed in an activity that is simple and personally rewarding. Since we love to create, decorate, and craft, we have discovered that our zen can be nurtured through decoupaging.

The only supplies needed are a surface for decoupaging, glue/sealer such as Mod Podge, decorative napkins, paper, or cloth, and scissors. For our projects, we used paper napkins, plastic eggs and pumpkins, bottles, and silver ornaments – all things we already had in our craft cabinet. Our only quest has been to mindfully create something beautiful just for ourselves. We wanted to share these with you today, perhaps as an inspiration that may help you find that calm place.

We encourage you to find what works to help you find your zen. Best wishes for good health and optimism for better days ahead.

Our view is pretty, sitting at the kitchen table with azaleas and bunnies. We are well, have food in the pantry, and keeping busy with long overdue chores. But, we are missing ya’ll – our clients, vendor friends, dear friends, and family. Like one of our favorite songs by Joni Mitchell, we “really don’t know what you got till it’s gone.” So true…

Our solace is that things will normalize eventually but our lives will be different. What that means our crystal ball can’t reveal, but hope that we come through it with more wisdom, compassion, love, and gratitude.

This week we received a phone call from Kimberly, our new account manager from Wedding Wire. After congratulating us for receiving the Couples’ Award, she asked if there was anything she could help us with. Turns out she had a great idea for our potential clients so they can see the different options we offer.

Voila! We now have a new downloadable pdf on Wedding Wire that gives clients three ideas for possible table settings. But, of course, we went even further! A new page has been added to our website under the Services & Pricing section – Examples of Vintage Place Settings & Pricing – which illustrates 5 different packages from previous clients. Here’s another example of one package.

Vintage Elegant Floral Patterns

Elegant dinner plate

Stainless flatware:Dinner knife, dinner fork, spoon

White/cream napkin

100 place settings as shown starts at $325.

Our second big news is that we have added a new china collection for our clients – Vintage White/Cream. Currently there are 80 in our inventory but we’ll be adding more. We also have salad and dessert plates that beautifully coordinate with this collection.

There are also many updates on our site that synchronize with the new theme. Take a look when you have time!

Our 2020 calendar is filling up but we still have available dates. Let us know how we can help you with your next special occasion!

How exciting is this? For us, it’s really, really, exciting!! We are soooo very grateful to our couples who gave us the opportunity to play a part in their wedding day and shared a review on Wedding Wire. Today we are featuring four such reviews that we made us really proud.

Erin – Perfection!

Everything we rented from SVT was beautiful. Dinner plates, dessert plates, flatware, appetizer plates, goblets, and some extra funky vintage decor like an old radio and record player. Everyone commented on how cool and quirky our mix and match items were. Shelly is sooo friendly and sweet. Her shop is amazing, I wanted to buy everything in there!!!

Callie Hall, Photographer

Lisa – Vintage Chic Wedding

If you’re envisioning an elegantly chic vintage ambiance for your wedding, reception, party special event. Southern Vintage Table in Hillsborough, NC has the candelabras flatware. plateware, glassware, vintage accents and seamless service to create the ideal setting. Thank you Shelly!

Shelly is amazing! She has so many options for plates, glasses, and everything in between— she is so helpful in making your vision come to life, even if you’re not quite sure what it is you’re looking for. She was incredibly dependable and great to work with, and the table scapes she created for us matched our wedding vibe PERFECTLY. She provided colorful goblets, flower plates, napkins, flatware, mugs, dessert plates, and it all was wonderful! We loved working with her 🙂

Autumn Harrison, Photographer

Alisha – Beautiful choices and so easy to work with!

We loved working with Shelly! First of all, her space is amazing. It was so fun to walk through her inventory, pick out items, and “set” a table to see what we liked. She has so many beautiful choices–we ended up renting gorgeous mismatched plates, colorful glass goblets, dessert stands, vases, and pitchers (all vintage). The rental went perfectly. Also, Shelly was very helpful and flexible when our delivery times had to change. Highly recommend her!!

Thank you all. It was sincerely our pleasure! Looking forward to this new year with its new opportunities!